Yesterday, claims were made that contradicted what major tech companies said about whether or not they knew about the NSA’s data collection.
NSA General Counsel Rajesh De was said to have stated that companies such as Google and Facebook had full knowledge of the surveillance of their users.
Ever since the first accusations were made in summer of 2013, tech companies have denied any involvement or knowledge of agency spying programs such as PRISM, denying that the National Security Agency had direct access to their data.
The companies have also pushed for permission from the U.S. Government to allow them to disclose how many users have been under surveillance on their platforms by the NSA.
Facebook denied the new accusations according to TechCrunch, saying “Before it was reported in the news, we had never heard of ‘PRISM’ or any program in which Internet companies, voluntarily or otherwise, gave the government direct access to servers or in any way facilitated the bulk collection of user data. At the same time, we never suggested that we were not aware of our obligations under FISA, which was the topic of today’s hearing. In fact, we have been fighting for more transparency around the lawful national security-related requests from the U.S. Government that we may receive under this statute. The suggestion that we were misleading the public is frustrating and untrue.”
The Guardian has also issued a significant amendment to their original story to strip it of any text saying that the tech companies contradicted themselves.
[Photo Credit: DailyTech]
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